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Three Important Contexts for Bible Study

June 2, 2025 By Ryan Higginbottom

Jay Clark (2018), public domain

We use the word “context” a lot on this blog. However, we don’t always use the word in the same way.

There are at least three different contexts that are important when studying the Bible: the historical context, the literary context, and the personal context. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

Historical Context

Each book of the Bible was written at a specific time, and that historical background is important. At minimum, we should recognize who wrote the book and what was happening in that part of the world at the time.

One of the main themes of the Bible is how God calls and saves his people and how they extend his kingly rule over the earth. Therefore, it is crucial to understand who is in power and the condition of God’s people.

The question of power is relevant both for God’s people and those nearby. When reading the Old Testament, we should learn about the leaders of Israel and the surrounding nations. How the king in Israel came to power and whether he was faithful to God will explain much about the mood of a passage and any warnings or commands contained therein.

God’s people have gone through long stretches of faithfulness and rebellion, punctuated by prophetic announcements. As we read the Old Testament, we need to discern whether Israel is turning toward or away from God at the time.

(The questions of power and faithfulness apply when reading the New Testament as well, but the span of time and the number of other nations involved are much larger in the Old Testament.)

The best place to find a short historical introduction to each book of the Bible is a good Study Bible. For more detailed information, a commentary is the place to turn.

Literary Context

The context to which we refer most frequently on this blog is the literary context of the passage in question. This is certainly true for our ongoing Context Matters series. In these posts we examine well-known verses or phrases from the Bible and show how they might mean something deeper or different that what we assume.

Literary context matters because the Bible is not a loose collection of inspirational stories or aphorisms. The biblical authors wrote works of literature, so where an author places a passage was a deliberate choice, and the meaning of that passage is framed by what comes before and after.

The immediate context refers to the sections directly before and after a passage. But the broader literary context matters too. One of the great values of a book overview is getting an outline of the author’s flow of thought and purpose in writing.

The best way to grasp the literary context of a passage is to read it yourself. Unlike historical context, where we mostly need to depend on experts, any ordinary person with a Bible can see the literary context. When studying a smaller passage of Scripture, it is a good practice to read the entire book which contains that passage on an ongoing basis.

Personal Context

The way we apply the Bible is personal, since obedience to the same command may look different for different people. The context of our lives matters.

Some commands in Scripture look much the same for all people. The eighth commandment (“You shall not steal”) has far-reaching and profound implications, but it always boils down to not taking what isn’t yours.

Other commands of God will look quite different for different people. God has called us to our particular places—married or single, urban or rural, healthy or ill, different countries of residence—and much of the difficulty of applying God’s word is discerning how his general principles should be worked out in those particular places.

For example, for me to love my neighbor I need to know my neighbor, care for my neighbor, and seek to do good for my neighbor, even at great cost to myself. But if my neighbors are not your neighbors, we will necessarily obey this command in slightly different ways.

God’s call to personal faith, repentance, and obedience means that we need to seek the Lord as individuals. However, God does not call us and leave us alone. He calls us into the church, and we need this community to apply the Bible faithfully.

All Contexts Matter

Because the Bible was written by people, about people, to people, and for people, all of these contexts matter. As we study the Bible we need to take all of these contexts into account as we observe, interpret, and apply God’s word.

This was originally posted in 2018.

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Wisdom Delivers from Adulterous People

May 30, 2025 By Peter Krol

Last week we saw that wisdom delivers from evil people. Proverbs 2 moves on to yet another deliverance that occurs when we make different choices.

So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,
From the adulteress with her smooth words,
Who forsakes the companion of her youth
And forgets the covenant of her God;
For her house sinks down to death,
And her paths to the departed;
None who go to her come back,
Nor do they regain the paths of life (Prov 2:16-19).

Deliverance FROM adulterous people. An understanding person will choose not to engage in sexual activity with anyone but a spouse. This lifestyle means avoiding even flirtatious speech (Prov 2:16) and emotional intimacy or companionship (Prov 2:17). God designed erotic activity to build oneness in marriage. Pursuing a sexual relationship outside of marriage results in a type of death (Prov 2:18) that leaves a lasting stain in one’s history and memory (Prov 2:19). A failure to repent of such a lifestyle will ultimately lead to everlasting death in hell.

empty road leading through misty forest — Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV on Pexels.com

We must understand that Solomon’s warning is not limited to sexual intercourse with a married person (one overly-literal way to interpret “going to” an “adulteress”). All sexual activity is, well, sexual. Thus, all sexual activity and flirtatious speech with someone other than a spouse is included in Solomon’s warning. The discerning person will stay far from that path, delighting in God’s generous plan for marriage. Solomon gives much more detail on this theme in Proverbs 5 and 7.

Note that, as with the first category, the most dangerous and deceitful relationships can be with those who attend church or who claim to follow the Lord. Some people who would never consider something clearly immoral, like spending the night with a prostitute, will give themselves to various forms of sexual activity with another person who has a smattering of religious commitment. In his perceptive satire Evangellyfish (Moscow, ID: Canon, 2012), Douglas Wilson illustrates such a scene through the eyes of a fictional youth pastor:

Every month or so the stress of youth ministry—dealing with the kids and all their issues—would get to Johnny, and so he would head on over to Brandy’s apartment to have her give him a neck rub, followed by her specialty back rub. But somehow her giving him a back rub always turned into him giving her a front rub, and then they would fall again.

…Brandy gave him a few back rubs back [when she was a student in his youth group] that brought them perilously close to the edge, but honestly, there was no front rubbing until after she graduated… That meant that when they finally followed the manner of all the earth, they were not violating the professional standards of youth ministry, but rather simply the seventh item on an ancient list which was from the Old Testament anyway.

Here in Proverbs 2:16-19, the adulterous woman “forgets the covenant of her God” (Prov 2:17). In chapter 7, she’s someone who offers sacrifices at God’s temple (Prov 7:14), so we can see that in some sense she was indeed a member of the community of God’s people. Such people can be chief among those who offer temptations. We must constantly guard our hearts and set up boundaries for healthy relationships. The wise – whether male or female – will exercise discernment and turn from “the forbidden woman.”

This post was first published in 2013 and is part of a series walking through Proverbs 1-9.

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3 Ways to Overcomplicate Your Bible Reading

May 28, 2025 By Peter Krol

Jacob Crouch wants to encourage you to read your Bible. In so doing, he warns of three common pitfalls he’s seen that tend to overcomplicate things:

Studying every passage
Setting unrealistic goals
Having no goals

while this seems like it shouldn’t be controversial to say, I have found that almost every person I talk to in the American South (and I’d imagine is true of a lot of places) has never read through the Bible in it’s entirety. And it’s not just in nominal, cultural Christians. It is often in well-meaning, genuine Christians. Some are even leading in church or para-church ministries. For these people, I don’t think the problem is sincerity, but rather an overcomplicating of the Bible-reading process. I want to shine a light on some common mistakes and hopefully help you avoid them.

Check it out!

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Wisdom Delivers from Evil People

May 23, 2025 By Peter Krol

Wisdom delivers by enabling us to make different choices.

Delivering you from the way of evil,
From men of perverted speech,
Who forsake the paths of uprightness
To walk in the ways of darkness,
Who rejoice in doing evil
And delight in the perverseness of evil,
Men whose paths are crooked,
And who are devious in their ways (Prov 2:12-15).

"Deception Pass" by gemteck1 (2008), shared under a Creative Commons Attribution License — “Deception Pass” by gemteck1 (2008), Creative Commons Attribution

Deliverance FROM evil people. A discerning, godly person will choose not to join evildoers in their evildoing. This lifestyle means rejecting hurtful speech (Prov 2:12), deceitful cover-ups (Prov 2:13), godless delights (Prov 2:14), and devious behavior (Prov 2:15). The wise person knows that the most dangerous of all potential influencers are those who claim to follow God, but who by their actions have forsaken his way (Prov 2:13).

I’ll give an example. We once hired a contractor to upgrade one of the mechanical systems in our house. About a week after the work was completed, we discovered that we should have gotten a permit from the local code office for this work. So I called the contractor to ask if he had gotten one and had just forgotten to communicate with us about it. Now he claimed to believe in God, but his response was something like: “Is the code office after you? Just tell them you had only a little bit of work done, and they’ll leave you alone.”

This course of action was unacceptable to me; I knew that a deceitful cover-up would dishonor God and come back to haunt me someday. I should have researched the local ordinances more carefully, and I had to deal with the consequences. So I contacted the code office and told them of my situation, offering to do whatever I needed to do to make it right. The assistant at the office told me to fill out an application and include a note saying that I wasn’t aware of the permit requirement before the work completion date. Once I did, the permit was issued, and I don’t think they even charged a penalty.

The point is: I had to make a different choice. Part of that choice involved not being influenced by an outwardly godly but inwardly deceptive approach to the situation. Those who have heard and received God’s wisdom are equipped to label “the way of evil” correctly so they can avoid it and its consequences.

This post was first published in 2013 and is part of a series walking through Proverbs 1-9.

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Use Context to Resist Satan

May 21, 2025 By Peter Krol

J.A. Medders reflects on the fact that the devil hates context. He’ll quote scripture but ignore what’s present right in the immediate context. We should make sure we don’t do the same. (My co-blogger Ryan once made a similar point.) In fact, by employing context in our Bible study, we’ll be better equipped to resist the wiles of Satan.

The devil took Psalm 91:11–12, applied it to Jesus, and left out the context. And here’s why: verse 13 is an allusion, reminder, and reinforcement of the promise God made in Genesis 3:15. There in the garden of Eden, as sin rippled through the universe, the devil heard his doom—someone would be born who would crush his head. And his name is Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. He didn’t want to think about Jesus and verse 13.

Check it out!

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Help Your Small Group Members Ask Good Questions

May 19, 2025 By Ryan Higginbottom

Greta Schölderle Møller (2016), public domain

Most of the small group Bible studies I’ve attended have a familiar format.

First, the group leader introduces the passage and asks someone to read it aloud. Then, either the leader talks about the passage, pointing out interesting or important details and connections, or the leader asks the group questions to spark discussion. Hopefully the conversation turns to application before it ends.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this structure. I’d much rather someone attend a Bible study like this than not be involved in any small group. But this model leaves group members mostly passive. Everything centers on the leader, and group members act as an audience. As a result, group members leave the group with more knowledge about one Bible passage but no greater Bible study skills.

There’s a better way.

Small Groups for Training

At this blog we’re passionate about helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible. This learning can happen in all sorts of venues, including small groups!

One way to make this happen is to design the group explicitly as a Bible study training group. In other words, advertise the group as one in which you’ll learn and practice Bible study skills. After all, learning the basics of Bible study doesn’t take long, and for those who are new to the custom, a group setting is a great way to practice.

Alternatively, you can build this training into the normal rhythms of your small group.

Training Along the Way

One key to good Bible study is learning to ask good questions of the text.

When observing the text, ask about the genre, the grammar, and the structure. When interpreting, ask questions about your observations; seek out the main point of the passage. And when applying, ask what this all means; press the main point of the passage into all the corners of your life.

In the course of a regular Bible study, a leader can train group members to get better at asking these kinds of questions. These are skills that members can then use in their personal Bible study.

De-center the Small Group

Small group discussions that revolve around the leader can have unintended consequences. I’m afraid that a byproduct of such groups is that group members rarely study the Bible outside of small group meetings.

We need to dispel the lie that Bible study is just for the experts. I’ve been in lots of small groups where everyone looked to the leader to answer all questions and resolve all difficulties. But everyone can study the Bible! Bible study is not a task to be left to the academics (and leaders) with everyone else picking up stray crumbs that drop from the table.

How to Train for Good Questions

Here are five ways to help your small group members grow in their OIA skills and ask better questions.

Be transparent. Don’t hide what you’re doing—no one likes to be manipulated or to fall victim to a sneak attack. Explain why learning Bible study skills is important for everyone and describe what you’ll be doing.
Teach mini-lessons. Decide on a few small group meetings where, as part of the conversation, you’ll offer brief instruction on one aspect of Bible study. The group can practice that particular skill immediately after the explanation. This way, group members can pick up OIA training over the course of several meetings.
Use worksheets. We have some excellent worksheets available on our resources page. Make copies and pass them out with your instruction. Encourage your group members to use them for personal study.
Leave space for questions. After you’ve had a chance to take your group through the different aspects of Bible study, involve your group more centrally in future discussions. Allow time during the conversation for observations and interpretive questions. Instead of asking application questions yourself, call on the group to produce them.
Be imitable. If we’re doing it well, our group members should be able to imitate our teaching. That is, they should be able to arrive at the same conclusions we do. The key here is simply showing your work. Explain your process and your thinking. Minimize your appeals to experts and commentaries; focus on the text of the Bible and what you can draw from it.

Equipping the Saints

Leading a leader-centered small group can be nice for the ego, but it rarely builds skills in group members. It has no multiplying effect.

When you help your small group members learn Bible study skills, you equip them for a consistent, deeper relationship with God. They won’t rely on you to understand the Bible, they’ll be able to interpret and apply God’s word themselves.

And that’s something anyone would want to pass along!

Note: This post is a small attempt to restate portions of Peter’s excellent, earlier post.

This post was originally published in 2018.

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Wisdom Delivers

May 16, 2025 By Peter Krol

"Imperial Bodyguard" by Jay Adan (2010), shared under a Creative Commons Attribution License — “Imperial Bodyguard” by Jay Adan (2010), shared under a Creative Commons Attribution License

When we become wise, we receive heavy-duty protection and deliverance, but it’s important to realize how this protection works.

Discretion will watch over you,
Understanding will guard you (Prov 2:11)

It is not as though we may continue in our foolish ways and then hope for a sudden miraculous rescue from their consequences: “Lord, I cheated on my taxes and now the IRS is after me. Deliver me from their persecution!” Wisdom’s threat in Prov 1:28 should have rid us of any such misconception.

In Prov 2:11 it’s clear that the promised deliverance is more mundane than it is miraculous. It goes like this. When we listen to wisdom, God gives us discretion. He changes our hearts so that we desire what he desires. Then, when we act according to God’s desires – employing our God-given discretion to the daily decisions we face – we make different choices that result in different consequences. Instead of racing headfirst toward suffering and pain, we act in a more life-giving way. We will choose not to do evil, harmful things and to do good, stable things.

Over the next two Proverbs posts, we’ll see what such discretion delivers us from. After that, we’ll see what such discretion delivers us for. If you can’t wait, just read the rest of Prov 2:11-22 to see for yourself.

This post was first published in 2012 and is part of a series walking through Proverbs 1-9.

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Good Old Fashioned Biblical Literacy

May 14, 2025 By Peter Krol

Ben LeBlanc has a wonderful and thoughtful piece on “How One Gen Zer is Gaining Biblical Literacy the Old-Fashioned Way.” In the article, he tells the story of how he had to go without a smartphone for two years in Bible school, and it transformed the way he approached the Scripture.

Not only does online life erode our capacity to read, but it distorts how we read by cluttering the page with links, notifications, and widgets. In one study, participants found it harder to recall what they’d read as the number of links in an article increased. And research by Nielsen shows that online readers don’t read: They skim and “powerbrowse”, moving their eyes across the page in a spasmodic F-pattern.

LeBlanc offers three practical suggestions for how to avoid such dangers and improve your own experience of the Lord in his word. You’ll have to go see them for yourself.

Check it out!

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The Second Result of Listening to Wisdom

May 9, 2025 By Peter Krol

If we passively receive and actively seek wisdom, then two things will happen: We’ll start being wise, and we’ll keep becoming wiser. Last week, we examined the first result. This week, we’ll address the second one.

Then you will understand righteousness and justice
And equity, every good path;
For wisdom will come into your heart,
And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul (Prov 2:9-10).

You’ll keep becoming wiser. Proverbs 2:9 states that “you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path.” Does that list – righteousness, justice, and equity – ring any bells? You may recall the same phrase from Prov 1:3 where Solomon listed his third purpose for the book of Proverbs: that we would not just know the right thing to do, but also do it.

Here in chapter 2, he promises that, if we listen to wisdom, we will understand every good path. In other words, we won’t only become wise; we’ll keep on living wisely. We begin the journey of wisdom (Prov 2:5) and continue walking along it every moment of every day in every little decision we make (Prov 2:9).

Why is this the case? Because “wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul” (Prov 2:10). You’ve survived a “hostile takeover.” Your heart is now filled with and mastered by wisdom, rather than by your own simplicity that leads to folly. Your desires have changed, becoming more like God’s own desires. You now find knowledge to be pleasant and not something to be despised. (See Prov 1:7.) You are now a different person, free to make different choices.

"Marathon Medalists" by Mostly Dans (2012), shared under a Creative Commons Attribution License — “Marathon Medalists” by Mostly Dans (2012), shared under a Creative Commons Attribution License

The type of listening that produces such constant change is not something that can be completed after a few tries.

It’s a persevering discipline. As we live a life of wisdom, our need for listening grows more, not less. Remember how Solomon stopped listening and became a fool? Don’t follow his example! Keep receiving and keep seeking. Then you won’t be like the marathon runner who was disqualified because he hopped on a bus for part of the race. Be a finisher, not just a starter. The end of your life is far more important than its beginning (Ecc 7:8).

Application

When we listen to wisdom, we’ll keep becoming wiser. What does it look like for us to walk this path? Here are some ideas:

Ask God for wisdom every day. No, scratch that; make it every hour.
In every situation, ask yourself, “What can I learn here?”
Learn how to study the Bible. (Here’s some help. And more help.) Meet regularly with others to discuss it.
Ask other people how they think you could grow.
Read a chapter of Proverbs every day. That way, you’ll cover the whole book each month. I did this for years and developed a notebook of topics. I picked one topic each month, and every day I’d write down which verses addressed that topic. This notebook became a useful resource that I still use.

If wisdom has entered your heart, and the fear of the Lord characterizes you, then you will love instruction. In particular, you will love God’s instruction, which means you’ll draw steadily closer to him. Don’t let your life slip by without careful attention.

By the time he turned 21, American theologian Jonathan Edwards had written 70 personal commitments (he called them “resolutions”) for his walk with Christ. They included things like speaking words that build up, managing his time well, and being a trustworthy person. Most noteworthy is his commitment to consciously trust in Jesus, especially when he felt on top of the world. Item #53 states:

“Resolved, to improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer.”

At the top, right before the first item on the list, he wrote this statement: “Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.” Here was a man who understood his natural tendency to drift from the path of wisdom and who set himself to give careful attention that he might not do so.

To summarize where we are in the argument of Prov 2:1-10: If you persevere at listening carefully to wisdom, you will grow to love wisdom. Your proud, selfish heart will melt, liberating you to make different choices every day. You’ll be heading in the right direction, growing closer to Jesus and becoming more like him.

This post was first published in 2012 and is part of a series walking through Proverbs 1-9.

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When Scripture Gets Stale

May 7, 2025 By Peter Krol

Glenna Marshall has some keen and practical advice for those who have hit a wall struggling to be consistent in Bible reading.

If you’re following a Bible reading plan, you might be feeling a little weary these days. You’ve plowed through a lot of Old Testament history and law, and there’s a good chance you’re in some very strange Leviticus material. Many reading plans keep you in Psalms year round, but if poetry isn’t your strong suit, you might find the psalms to be overwhelming with imagery, parallelism, and anthropomorphism (try repeating that list three times fast!).

She goes on to give some encouraging and concrete pointers for what to do when you are in this position. And she’s right on target to cheer: “Keep going! Your time in Scripture is never wasted, even if you don’t feel or see immediate results.”

We couldn’t agree more. Check it out!

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